Review: Cloud Calendar, Google Calendar Client for iPad

While searching for interesting alternatives to Apple’s own calendar application for iPhone and iPad, I stumbled upon Cloud Calendar by Clean Cut Code. Cloud Calendar is a new calendar app for iPad that’s specifically meant to work with Google Calendar – and being Google’s calendar solution part of my workflow already, I decided to give it a try.

Cloud Calendar is undoubtedly a very good app to manage your calendars on the iPad, it comes with an elegant interface design and it’s intuitive enough to let you add new events with one tap. It still needs some additional customization options though, the ones that could probably break the app for “calendar power users” that can’t live without edit mode in shared calendars. It’s a very good app overall, so read on past the break for all the details.

The app features an elegant interface that makes it easy to check on your Google Calendar and switch between calendars using a popover menu in the top left corner. You can switch between as many calendars as you wish. I ran into some issues with my Google Apps login at first launch, but the developers quickly pointed out that I needed to enable SSL login. The app has been working smoothly since then. It is fast at syncing events with Google Calendar – I just wish it could sync them automatically without having to press the sync button, though. I guess that’s coming in a future update. I also wish the sync panel wasn’t a modal window: I’d like everything to happen in the background.

Where Cloud Calendar really stands out is in the navigation of weeks, months, events. You can swipe in any view to navigate to the next one (week view, month view and so on) and to create a new event you just have to tap. The app will recognize the area where you tapped to automatically fill the start and end time. Event details can be modified inside a popover, and you can also set reminders from within the app. SMS and email reminders are supported, but I haven’t figured out a way to trigger local notifications properly.

I really appreciate the calendar views offered by Cloud Calendar. The monthly view is the one where I spend most of my time on, being the one that provides a quick overview of all events in all week days. I don’t really use the “list” one, but I have to admit the week view is pretty good as well. Overall, Cloud Calendar comes with a range of options and views that should satisfy the average Google Calendar user. Other features of the app include a search function in the top bar to easily retrieve any event with a few keystrokes, repeating events and guests.

At $4.99 in the App Store, I’ve found Cloud Calendar to be the app I constantly go back to for my Google Calendar needs. It looks good, it works pretty well and the developers are actively responding to bug reports and feature requests. The app provides an enjoyable Google Calendar experience tailored to iPad users, and I’m looking forward to future updates – which, hopefully, will come soon.

If you’re looking for an alternative Google Calendar app for iPad, you should give Cloud Calendar a spin.